NBA: Make little or no progress

National Basketball Association owners and players failed to move closer to lifting a lockout that may delay the start of the season.Five hours of talks between the full bargaining committees for both sides at a midtown Manhattan hotel yesterday yielded “little or no progress” on a new labor accord, union Executive Director Billy Hunter told reporters.National Basketball Players Association President Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers said the deadlock makes it less likely that the regular season, set to begin on Nov. 1, will start on time. No talks are scheduled to work toward ending the lockout that management imposed on July 1.“We’re not marching toward getting a deal done at this time,” Fisher told reporters. “Because of the calendar, we can’t come out of here feeling training camp and the season will start on time.”The groups exchanged economic proposals during meetings last week and the sides are “on the road” to reaching agreement on the basis of a new labor accord, NBA Commissioner David Stern told reporters yesterday.The owners are looking for a new salary-cap system -- how much each team can pay its players -- to improve competitive balance in the league. The union’s concessions are tied to keeping the system unchanged to continue the contract security that players currently enjoy.“It shouldn’t be the case that they’re coming in to tell us if they’re willing to make economic concessions, we should be willing to accept the existing system, which from our perspective doesn’t work,” NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver told reporters.The NBA had about $4.3 billion in revenue last season, with teams losing a collective $300 million, according to Stern.The union may get a response to the unfair labor practice charge it filed in May with the National Labor Relations Board by Oct. 1, Hunter said.Owners are scheduled to meet tomorrow in Dallas, with union members convening the same day in Las Vegas, where some players are taking part in a training series run by the Impact Basketball Academy.Stern said he doesn’t anticipate announcing the postponement of training camps, which are due to begin in the first week of October, at the conclusion of those meetings.In 1998, the last time there was an NBA lockout, the first postponement came on Sept. 24, when the league delayed training camp, which was set to begin Oct. 5. The season was shortened to 50 games from 82 after an agreement was reached in January 1999.